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I spent the day today putting the finishing touches on my '88 Mazda RX7 Convertible engine install.
Tomorrow I will add water, oil, PS fluid and crank it for the first time in about ten years. (For those who may want to know why it took so long, see below*). If I am able to get it started and running with no leaks I will then roll it out into the sun for the first time in ten years.
Here is my question.
If you had a car that sat in the garage for so long? How would you evict the bugs and arachnids? I'd rather not get in to take a ride and get bitten by an angry black widow who had been happy to sit under the seat. I see none in the interior, but the bottom of the exterior was covered in those silk egg sack balls.
My first thought is to just close the top and "bug bomb" it - then take take the seats out and then clean the interior and headliner with carpet cleaner (I want to take the headliner out anyway to clean it.)
Anyone have a better suggestion?
The car sat for ten years because when I felt the engine was starting to get weak at 250,000 miles, I decided to rebuild it. After getting the long block back in place, I put almost all the accessories on and then was about to add fluids and start it when a job offer came in from the Pacific North West. Knowing it would be cold and dark most of the time I decided that I would not need the convertible. So I saw no point in adding fluids and letting it sit for a year or so to corrode. A little more than a year later when I got home, I got a call from another place, and then from Wisconsin, a couple years later, Kansas, etc, etc, etc. After a total of 8 years, I retired, but put off starting it. Finally I am ready!!! Believe it or not I am now hearing about a job offer in Texas that I would have to take if the offer came through.
I see no better solution than to smoke the car. And in some more or less enclosed place, like tent or something. It will take long time for gas to get into every nook. Also, take all filters out. They like those. https://www.google.com/search?q=rode...IqGqITcdGKDnM:
And even then, you somehow will have to evacuate corpses.
From what I know, from experience, rodents and bugs LOVE hot engines and metal and car interior.
I see no better solution than to smoke the car. And in some more or less enclosed place, like tent or something. It will take long time for gas to get into every nook. Also, take all filters out. They like those. https://www.google.com/search?q=rode...IqGqITcdGKDnM:
And even then, you somehow will have to evacuate corpses.
From what I know, from experience, rodents and bugs LOVE hot engines and metal and car interior.
I pulled the seats in order to clean the carpet. While the seats were out I was able to climb in, lay on the floor and look under the dash. Not a single egg sack, no cobwebs, not a sign of any kind of bugs. I guess there is nothing inside the car that interests them. I'm surprised because the top has been down all this time.
So, I took off the access plate, undid the lines to the tank - phew, that old gas smells horrible; and unscrewed the 8 screws that hold the cover plate and pump assembly to the tank. That is all except one. The last one's head stripped, not I have to go get my screw out and or drill to remove that last screw!
I could not get the drill and screw extractor into place, there simply was not enough room.
So I went to my back up... My Dremel... I decided to cut a new flat blade screwdriver slot into the head of the stripped screw...
"Curses, foiled again," the portable Dremel would not cut the slot because the access port is small and the head of the Dremel is too big to clear all the the pump plate parts.
Ahh, but I have a Dremel flex shaft...
Two minutes later, the screw was out.
When I was a kid, I had dexterity, muscle, great eyesight, and all the physical attributes to do jobs like this... but few tools.
Now that I am older. I have lost some of the physical, but I have tools out the ying-yang. It makes a HUGE difference. I'd been debating for years whether or not I wanted to get a garage lift so I don't have to lay in puddles on hard concrete. I think I will order one soon.
Good goin'. I would suggest just vacuuming the interior really well, maybe with a shop vac. I don't think an aerosol bug bomb is a good idea, it's overkill and may damage the interior.
Maybe put some "No Pest Strip" type bug killers say under the seats?
Even when you know you did everything right, there is that feeling of satisfaction when the damn thing actually starts and runs right.
Yeah, having good tools and a decent garage to work in beats wrestling with it out in the "Mud, Blood, and Beer" so to speak.
Fuel, air, spark, Bam! It's running. Tomorrow I will check the timing and see if I can get it to quiet down a little. I'm thinking I have a exhaust pipe connection loose.
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Why is there always one?
